Difference Maker of the Year Ethan Ho Creates Accessible Toys
When Ethan Ho started working with Makers Making Change, he didn’t realize the impact it would have, not only on him, but the community around him.
In 2025, Ethan was the recipient of the Rick Hansen Foundation School Program (RHFSP) Difference Maker of the Year Award.
The RHFSP Difference Maker of the Year Award celebrates youth ages 5-18 whose accessibility projects go above and beyond to make their schools and communities more inclusive by creating more awareness and removing barriers for people with disabilities.
His journey began with a toy hacking event that led to so much more.
Learning about Makers Making Change
In February 2024 Ethan, a student at Burnaby Secondary School, attended a build event with his friends and family. At the event, there was an opportunity to try toy hacking through Neil Squire’s Makers Making Change program.
Makers Making Change “connects volunteer makers to people with disabilities who need assistive devices.” At the event, Ethan had the opportunity to make toys more accessible, so more kids have the opportunity to play.
“I attended that original event, and after I heard the presentation on the Makers Making Change mission and vision and how they were pushing for a more accessible world, I was inspired to do more,” Ethan said.
Growing a Passion
From there, Ethan started to volunteer with Makers Making Change and began to hack toys for kids in his spare time.
“I started just making buttons and switches for toys originally, but that moved into a different role where I was the person who could take the toys that were hacked and make sure they worked properly,” Ethan explained. “If they didn’t quite work, we would fix them up before we sent them out.”
Ethan continued to be involved and soon found out that Makers Making Change had a grant opportunity called Clubs that Care. The grant supports youth leaders in making a difference and provides funding to engage volunteers in a build event and create accessible toys.
Ethan applied for his high school’s STEM Club of which Ethan was a part.
“I was able to help organize and run two events for volunteers to put together joysticks for the cerebral palsy association,” Ethan explained. “We got over 50 people to volunteer with us. They had never heard of Makers Making Change, so it was awesome for them to get involved and learn about the program.”
Making a Difference
For Ethan, the impact of the work is one of the things he is most proud of.
“The impact they have made, and the spread of the work being done, is amazing,” Ethan noted. “I’m just one person, but I was able to fix all these toys and have such a wide reach. The whole organization can reach so many.”
Ethan has now graduated high school and is taking his passion for building to pursue an engineering degree at the University of British Columbia in the fall.
“I do plan on continuing with Makers Making Change and pick up some requests for accessible toys,” Ethan said of his work. “A kid just wants to play with a toy, but because of their disability they can’t. Access is being able to make sure they can and removing those barriers.”
